Podcast HTF Podcast Episode 7: Spoilers (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Halfway through. My podcast listening got disrupted the past several weeks, so I'm running behind.

I'm telling you, as an avid spoiler-avoider, it's a weird experience listening to a podcast about spoilers where there aren't any clearly established rules or expectations on how actual spoilers will or will not be addressed. So I find myself skipping chunks of conversation out of an abundance of conversation. "They also ruined Terminator 4" <presses skip button with all prejudice> "And Terminator 5" <more frantic button mashing>

Have thoughts on why people love spoilers and spoiler culture. Will be back when I've finished the second half.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

So I find myself skipping chunks of conversation out of an abundance of conversation. "They also ruined Terminator 4" <presses skip button with all prejudice> "And Terminator 5" <more frantic button mashing>

Totally understand, but IMO I think we got you covered if you wanna go back and listen. ;-)

 

[Sam Posten]

Yup. I think the only for real spoilers are Sixth Sense and Empire Strikes Back.

 

[DaveF]

I hear you. But In the moment my lizard brain needs explicit explanation of what’s happening wrt spoilers.

 

[DaveF]

Quick thoughts:

Wither Spoiler culture? People love to be in the know. People love even more to be the first to know something new and exciting. And people *hate* being out of the know. I speculate that spoiler culture is derived from that, and not from an actual desire to know the details of a movie or TV show: it's just the race to be the most in the know, juiced by the internet.

Spoilers ruin movies? So this is obviously not true. We know this because people re-watch movies and TV shows. If knowing how a show plays out ruins the experience, no one would ever watch anything a second time. Also, just because you know the fact of a twist, you still haven't experienced the story's detailed progression to that revelation. Finally, there's been at least one study that shows that spoilers don't actually ruin the enjoyment of a movie. I'm very anti-spoiler for my personal enjoyment, but I acknowledge all this and have experienced it.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

And people *hate* being out of the know.

This is true.

 

[Bryan^H]

I grew up watching "At the movies" with Siskel and Ebert, so mild to major spoilers in movies have always been revealed to me. I guess I am used to it.
I'm still not bothered in the slightest by most minor, to medium spoilers, and honestly don't understand the outrage when people are "spoiled" by such those type.


Giving away major spoilers in "Presumed Innocent", "The Sixth Sense" "Planet of the Apes (original)..yeah that's pretty crummy as movies with "twist endings" are designed around one big spoiler anyway.


I could see that ruining the experience. But all the other types of movies, whatever. No big deal.

I had a friend try explaining a movie to me recently, and he kept pausing "I don't want to spoil it for you", and it just got so annoying with him walking on eggshells trying to give me the plot of the film. I finally told him "Look man, I don't care what you spoil about the film, I'm going to watch it anyway. I want to hear what you say about it, and it is kind of hard when you keep stopping to ask if I want this or that spoiled. Just tell me the story, OK?"

 

[DaveF]

I grew up watching "At the movies" with Siskel and Ebert, so mild to major spoilers in movies have always been revealed to me. I guess I am used to it.
I'm still not bothered in the slightest by most minor, to medium spoilers, and honestly don't understand the outrage when people are "spoiled" by such those type.

Good reviewers can explain a movie and their opinion of it without spoiling anything important. Siskel and Ebert were masters, by and large.

 

[DaveF]

Another thought:

How long should a person wait before revealing spoilers? What's social etiquette?

On the Better Call Saul podcast, I think it was, they introduced the Vince Gilligan rule: 2 weeks. Within two weeks of a movie or TV episode, you're not a civilized person if you reveal spoilers. But after that, you've had time to see it, and it's on you if you wander into spoilers.

I find that an acceptable compromise.

Which is why I was so annoyed that "baby Yoda" was spoiled by the internet internet within a day or two of its episode. Twitter was the worst, but it was everywhere.

That said, the great explosion of discussion of enthusiasm for Baby Yoda specifically and The Mandalorian in general has made me interested enough to watch it. It really wasn't on my to-do list. I still haven't gotten to it, but I will now. Yes something was "spoiled", but I can only roll with it, and appreciate the infectious enthusiasm that makes it worth spoiling.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

On the movies section here at HTF, the unofficial rule of thumb is ten days for spoiler tags on new releases in their own threads, and not to blow another movie’s ending in an unrelated thread ever. That gives two weekends for a film, which I think is fair. And I think in general it’s just in good taste not to blow up something unrelated anywhere - there’s just no reason to reveal the end of Avengers without spoiler tags in a thread for Star Wars.

For TV discussions, the unofficial rule has been that it’s fair game once a show has aired in all timezones, or in the case of a streaming show released one episode a week exactly at midnight, to give it a day. I’d watch The Mandalorean at 3am when it would first be posted but I wouldn’t reveal anything then - 24 hours later, no problem, but it’s reasonable to assume that most people aren’t watching it at 3am. For Netflix style shows dropped all at once, it’s much harder to have any rule that makes sense because some people watch it all in a day, some take their time, and the media coverage of the show will end up revealing everything by the end of the first weekend.

 

[dpippel]

Spoilers ruin movies? So this is obviously not true. We know this because people re-watch movies and TV shows. If knowing how a show plays out ruins the experience, no one would ever watch anything a second time.

I absolutely disagree. You can only experience a film for the first time ONCE. If a spoiler gives away a surprise twist (The Sixth Sense is a perfect example), then your experience watching that film has been compromised. You will not get the same enjoyment out of it that you would have if you had discovered that plot point yourself as the film organically played itself out.

The subject of re-watching movies has no relevance in this discussion, really.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I agree - I find it to be a vastly different experience rewatching something I’ve seen before vs watching something I’ve never seen where I already know what to expect.

 

[TonyD]

I stopped listening to this podcast during the very first one after something was spoiled for me in it.

Lost my trust.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

I stopped listening to this podcast during the very first one after something was spoiled for me in it.

Lost my trust.

Sorry about that! Curious, for which film?

 

[DaveF]

Spoiler Horn example
(Note, huge spoiler for The Magicians book 1 & Season 1 after the horn.)
https://overcast.fm/+kMbsLihQ/11:19

 

[Brian Dobbs]

10 Films Ruined By The Trailer

 

[JohnRice]

I absolutely disagree. You can only experience a film for the first time ONCE. If a spoiler gives away a surprise twist (The Sixth Sense is a perfect example), then your experience watching that film has been compromised. You will not get the same enjoyment out of it that you would have if you had discovered that plot point yourself as the film organically played itself out.

The subject of re-watching movies has no relevance in this discussion, really.

This I agree with, but spoilers have gotten to be so much of culture that there's almost nothing that can't be revealed. It involves a lot more than major twists, but also the details of experiencing the story for the first time. So-called "Critics" are a dime a dozen these days, while most are just people with nothing better to do with their time than talk and write about movies. Just because someone does it doesn't mean they are any good at it. I like to use Mark Kermode as the example of the ideal movie critic. First, he can talk about a movie for 20 minutes without detracting from the enjoyment of watching it the first time, plus he is a rare example of someone who really tries to understand and appreciate with the filmmaker was trying to accomplish.

Anyway, it's gotten to the point that I try to know as little as possible about movies before I see them.

 

[DaveF]

So...I’ll admit to being perplexed by the ending of this episode. It was done, and then a 30 min copy/paste of some celebrity TV interview came on to give a bunch of spoilers. I stopped listening since, well it was obviously over, and I didn’t want a 30 min interview, much less with spoilers.

I guess I’m kinda wondering what the artistic intent was on this one? Odd ending, given the topic and also compared to previous episodes.

 

[DaveF]

Maybe a future episode can be on reviewers and reviews? Seems like there’s a lot of strong opinions and passions to explore..

 

[Brian Dobbs]

So...I’ll admit to being perplexed by the ending of this episode. It was done, and then a 30 min copy/paste of some celebrity TV interview came on to give a bunch of spoilers.

Huh? What exactly did you hear? Totally confused!